


Interruption

by Samsonet



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Gen, Trans girl Bede
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23256250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samsonet/pseuds/Samsonet
Summary: In which Bede interrupts the finals, and Victor has something to say to her.
Kudos: 26





	Interruption

“And here I am, pouring my heart out to you, when I’ve never lost my cool before!”

She lets the words spill out, not holding anything back. It hurts, but in a good way – like a deep breath when she had been drowning. She’s laying everything out, now; she has to get through to him now, right?

On the other side of the pitch, Victor stands, impassive. Somehow, that hurts more than if he’d yelled back. He’s always like this, he’s always been like this since their first battle in the mines. How can a person be so… blank? So cold? Even if he doesn’t like her – even if he hates her – at least that would be a sign that he heard.

And then… Victor speaks.

“You sensed it too, didn’t you?”

He’s got a quiet voice. Shaky, like he’s not used to using it. Bede notes, absently, that he has the same accent as Hop. Of course he does. Didn’t they grow up together?

“…what?” she asks.

Victor’s brow furrows. “Hop and Marnie… they’re different than us. They’ve got something we don’t. Something here,” and he traces an X over his chest, where his heart would be. “Something that makes them soft and kind and gentle.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she glances at the audience where Hop and Marnie would be sitting.

It’s not like she’s spent a lot of time thinking about them… but she has. Oh, she has. Hop, brother of the sun, a shining star in his own right, someone who draws everyone’s eyes just by existing. Marnie, sister of darkness, princess of Spikemuth, someone whose smile caused people to swear their everlasting loyalty to her.

And then… Bede. Bede, ward of the chairman, fortunate orphan, the one who lashed out in jealousy at everyone who could have been her ally.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Victor says, “and I think… It’s because they grew up being cared for. Being loved. People can sense that, you know – when someone is loved. That makes them loveable. People can sense when someone is valued – that makes them valuable.”

 _So, then,_ Bede thinks, _they can sense when a person isn’t loved, isn’t valued. Does that make us unloveable? Valueless?_

Victor seems to read her mind. “And for kids like us, who never had that… People sense that, too. And they pity us.”

(Above them, the sun shines. Above them, Leon is still deciding Bede’s fate.)

“Hop sensed it about me. That’s why he’s so nice to me, why he’s always waiting for me to catch up to him. He cares for me, even though I don’t know how to care for him back. I thought I was the only person like this, but… then I met you. We’re the same. And I know you and him aren’t on good terms, but…”

He looks down.

“If we do battle, and if you do lose, I hope you won’t give up battling. I… I value you, Bede. I love battling you, and I… I want to see you again.” 

The loudspeakers crackle. The commentator speaks. Leon has decided to allow the interruption, it seems. Is this a sign of his love for the trainers of Galar? Or a challenge for the one trainer he endorsed?

Bede grips her first pokeball.

It doesn’t matter. She’s got a battle to lose.


End file.
